Drugs and their illegality

[Khisjaybey]

I'm sorry, but drugs simply have too many negative side effects to be legal. Looking at marijuana alone we can see the following negative effects that could ruin lives:

1. Schizophrenia
2. It is a 'gate way drug' to other drugs
3. It can cause homosexuality
4. Can lead to lung disease
5. Impared memory
6. Decreased wellbeing
7. CANCER!
8. Damage to unborn children who are innocent and cannot defend themselves against your choices! THEY DIDN'T CHOSE TO SMOKE POT, so how can YOU force that upon them?

Say suicide became legal tomorrow, would the amount of people commiting suicide increase substantially 'as they will no longer believe that' suicide is a bad thing.

Is suicide an addictive drug that people may become addicted to and never be able to stop? No. Suicide comes from preventable neural diseases. In any event, half the time people who commit suicide are drug addicts anyway!

Although some sort of stigma will be lost for the next generation, it isn't something that should be too worried about
You would hope that education (without hyperbole or outright lies) alone should prevent people from using certain substances

I actually agree with you on this one. We should be looking both at developing the social stigma around drugs in the community and, therefore, making them less 'cool', as well as teaching people that drugs are not the way that we were intended to live. They are mind-altering substances after all!

In the end, we have to ask ourselves if we want to live a life where we throw away all the gifts of life for a cheap 'hit' of marijuana, or if we want to enjoy the gifts of life! Ask yourself that before trying to defend the undefendable drugs!

[Hamdog17]

Quite an interesting graph here originally published in The Lancet: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Rational_scale_to_assess_the_harm_of_drugs_%28mean_physical_harm_and_mean_dependence%29.svg

[JellyDonut]

3. It can cause homosexuality

......... Lol

Ahahahahahahahaha, can't believe I missed that

[nubs]

1. Schizophrenia
2. It is a 'gate way drug' to other drugs
3. It can cause homosexuality
4. Can lead to lung disease
5. Impared memory
6. Decreased wellbeing
7. CANCER!
8. Damage to unborn children who are innocent and cannot defend themselves against your choices! THEY DIDN'T CHOSE TO SMOKE POT, so how can YOU force that upon them?

The homosexuality one makes me think you're trolling here
anyway
Schizophrenia - not proven and there is evidence both for and against it
Gateway drug - absolutely not. This is the so called 'evidence':
93% of heroin users smoked marijuana before trying heroin. Someone then decides to link this and say marijuana acts as a gateway to heroin. But uhh, pretty sure 100% of those heroin users had milk before they did heroin, or rode a bike.. does that mean riding a bike leads to heroin use? It should be how many pot smokers went on to heroin or cocaine, and it's less than 1% in either case. But yeah it is NOT a gateway drug
Cancer? Are you sure weed leads to cancer? There is not ONE case, not one, of a marijuana only smoker developing lung cancer, or even emphysema. Go ahead and look, you will not find one.
Furthermore, it has been shown the marijuana promotes the death of brain cancer cells, and stops the spread of lung and breast cancer to other parts of the body. Other studies have also shown that it can as much as half the size of tumors.
Impaired memory? Well it definitely doesn't kill brain cells, and many studies, starting with the one conducted at the university of Saskatchewan shows that it actually promotes brain cell growth. It's also being used as a form of treatment against Alzheimer's. It seems a bit contradictory to give an Alzheimer's patient something that impairs memory as a form of 'treatment'
Decreased wellbeing? lol no
Damage to the unborn child? Yeah sure it does, not nearly as devasting as the damage caused by alcohol use or cigarettes .

Is suicide an addictive drug that people may become addicted to and never be able to stop? No. Suicide comes from preventable neural diseases. In any event, half the time people who commit suicide are drug addicts anyway!

No, and neither is marijuana. You can always stop, why did you say 'never be able to stop'?. Drug use is also preventable. All I was trying to point out was that people aren't going to do something just because it is legal. And half the time people who commit suicide are drug addicts? Where's your source? I hope you're not implying that it's the drugs fault that some people are killing themselves

In the end, we have to ask ourselves if we want to live a life where we throw away all the gifts of life for a cheap 'hit' of marijuana, or if we want to enjoy the gifts of life! Ask yourself that before trying to defend the undefendable drugs!

Throw away all of the gifts of life for a cheap hit of weed? So everyone who has ever done weed is living a worthless life?
Obama?
Stephen King?
Michael Phelps?
Usain Bolt?
Nearly any musician you can think of?
Carl Sagan?
Former head of Harvard Medical School?
Angelina Jolie? Brad Pitt? The list goes on and on. I'm not saying weed will make you successful, I'm just showing you that using marijuana will not ruin your life.

You asked if we want to enjoy the gifts of life?
Some people believe weed can be one of the greatest and cheapest gifts of life, and you want to turn it down? How rude
Most people who have done acid suggest that it is one of the most amazing experiences they've ever had. Stop being so anti-drugs and realise that some of them aren't as bad as you've been made to believe. Just keep an open mind is all I'm saying

xo

[Hamdog17]

I'm sorry, but drugs simply have too many negative side effects to be legal. Looking at marijuana alone we can see the following negative effects that could ruin lives:

1. Schizophrenia
2. It is a 'gate way drug' to other drugs
3. It can cause homosexuality
4. Can lead to lung disease
5. Impared memory
6. Decreased wellbeing
7. CANCER!
8. Damage to unborn children who are innocent and cannot defend themselves against your choices! THEY DIDN'T CHOSE TO SMOKE POT, so how can YOU force that upon them?

Say suicide became legal tomorrow, would the amount of people commiting suicide increase substantially 'as they will no longer believe that' suicide is a bad thing.

Is suicide an addictive drug that people may become addicted to and never be able to stop? No. Suicide comes from preventable neural diseases. In any event, half the time people who commit suicide are drug addicts anyway!

Although some sort of stigma will be lost for the next generation, it isn't something that should be too worried about
You would hope that education (without hyperbole or outright lies) alone should prevent people from using certain substances

I actually agree with you on this one. We should be looking both at developing the social stigma around drugs in the community and, therefore, making them less 'cool', as well as teaching people that drugs are not the way that we were intended to live. They are mind-altering substances after all!

In the end, we have to ask ourselves if we want to live a life where we throw away all the gifts of life for a cheap 'hit' of marijuana, or if we want to enjoy the gifts of life! Ask yourself that before trying to defend the undefendable drugs!

You make a lot of vague generalisations and some of your points may be offensive to some people (especially regarding homosexuality, drug users and suicide). Mental health and drug use are incredibly complex issues which should not be simplified like you have done. Cigarettes are hundreds of time more harmful than cannabis in terms of carcinogenity btw (read here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060526083353.htm).

[nubs]

EDIT:
like I said before, for some, weed is an amazing gift
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8_5Ebsjk8I&feature=related
Marijuana has a lot of potential as a form of treatment, but, due to it's illegality, getting permission to test out it's medicinal properties is an extremely difficult task

Someone important once said something along the lines of this (I can't remember who): If cannabis had not yet been discovered, and tomorrow a team of researchers went into some forrest and found it for the first time - after conducting the necessary research - it would be deemed a wonder plant, it would be declared as being incredible.

It's potential to serve us on a psychological, spiritual, industrial, medicinal (and today even on an economical) basis is extraordinary, there is not one substance out there that can match it.
This potential could be harnessed in a much more suitable manner if it were made legal

EDIT:

If you wanna hear the industrial benefits just let me know, cause there are a fair few

[Truck]

3. It can cause homosexuality

What. The. Fuck. Did. I. Just. Read?

[sunintherain]

^mmk

Although it is not harmless, it seems as if it poses much less of a danger than alcohol does - both to the user and the people around him/her
But yeah, you never argued against that, I'm just making sure you realise that just in case you hadn't already

As for your claim that legalisation will increase use, you are ignoring a lot of factors that come into play

Say suicide became legal tomorrow, would the amount of people commiting suicide increase substantially 'as they will no longer believe that' suicide is a bad thing.

Similarly, how many people would go out and start shooting H if it became legal tomorrow? Not many. That's why it is education rather than social stigma that has the greater effect here.

Although some sort of stigma will be lost for the next generation, it isn't something that should be too worried about
You would hope that education (without hyperbole or outright lies) alone should prevent people from using certain substances

Legalisation will make way for safer and cleaner use. You will know what you're buying, and some people won't have to resort to sharing needles which will lower the spread of infections or STIs. Amount of overdoses will be expected to decrease, and the number of people willing to seek out help for their addiction may also be predicted to increase. It wouldn't be too surprising if addiction (perhaps not usage) decreased.
People won't have to resort to substitutes such as krokodil in Russia, or they won't have to risk picking poisonous mushrooms or mouldy ones when searching for magic mushrooms.
Magic mushrooms are as close to harmless as you can get as far as I know

Also consider the drug war. The drug war alone should be enough to compel most people in to wanted some sort of drug reform. It seems as if legalising all drugs is the only option to end the blood shed, with over 15,000 people being killed in 2010 alone.

An increase in use isn't such a bad thing, as long as the users are educated well enough on the topic and are using 'safely', just like people are advised to drink 'safely'

Although use may increase, ultimately - or from a utilitarian POV - it may be that legalising drugs is the right thing to do

You can not compare Drug use to suicide, suicide is not an addiction as someone said before me. I've also long thought the ban on suicide was made by idiots (off-topic). anyway legalizing drugs will not decrease usage rates, the Victorian government thought that legalizing prostitution would stop the amount of illegal brothels and underground crime linked to it (such as importing women and essentially using them as 'sex slaves') but that was a huge flop and since it's times of legality the amount of illegal brothels has tripled and crime stemming from them have soared.

[Russ]

The next person to post contradicting someone else by citing "evidence" that they fail to provide is not going to be happy.

[lexitu]

Throw away all of the gifts of life for a cheap hit of weed? So everyone who has ever done weed is living a worthless life?
Obama?
Stephen King?
Michael Phelps?
Usain Bolt?
Nearly any musician you can think of?
Carl Sagan?
Former head of Harvard Medical School?
Angelina Jolie? Brad Pitt? The list goes on and on. I'm not saying weed will make you successful, I'm just showing you that using marijuana will not ruin your life.

You asked if we want to enjoy the gifts of life?
Some people believe weed can be one of the greatest and cheapest gifts of life, and you want to turn it down? How rude
Most people who have done acid suggest that it is one of the most amazing experiences they've ever had. Stop being so anti-drugs and realise that some of them aren't as bad as you've been made to believe. Just keep an open mind is all I'm saying

xo

But quoting a list of people who are famous is by no means representative of all users (and who is to say that some of these people don't have problems anyhow?). I don't see how that's an argument. To say that it is not disruptive to a person's life would need some sort of large-study, probably longitudinal. Russ has cited some cases supporting negative health effects, so I guess the question you could ask is 'are these minor/major health effects substantial or are there lifestyle benefits that warrant legalising it. I.e. does benefit outweigh risk?

[lexitu]

Found this unintentionally in my daily news reading: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-06/aussies-kiwis-lead-world-in-cannabis-use/3761106

[ninwa]

Khisjaybey is a duplicate account created to troll, user has been banned

[Truck]

Found this unintentionally in my daily news reading: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-06/aussies-kiwis-lead-world-in-cannabis-use/3761106

Not sure if the sense of pride I feel reading that is the right feeling to have .

But seriously, I don't think there's enough evidence on marijuana out there to conclusively say if it's good or bad. In fact, I think it's unlikely that it's "all good" or "all bad" - there are probably positive and negative effects that come from it and ultimately marijuana abuse is less harmful then cigarette or alcohol abuse.

[sunintherain]

The next person to post contradicting someone else by citing "evidence" that they fail to provide is not going to be happy.

haha if you mean me, i read it in the age sometime ago

[Russ]

Not specifically you, just the general thread. As it stands, most people seem to be going with "what they've heard" and nobody is backing anything up.